Sunny had grown accustomed to using his shadows to scout ahead in dangerous situations, explore the world around him, and discover hidden threats. However, this time, he could not — simply because the shadows were as blind as him in the embrace of true darkness.
Walking deeper into the tunnel, he instantly felt tense and incredibly vulnerable. Things were even worse than Sunny had thought. Not only was his sight suddenly limited to a mere single point of view, not only could he not see anything outside the narrow circle of light created by the luminous Memories like a mere human…
Even his ability to sense the shapes and movements of shadows was crippled. Because, of course, no shadow existed within darkness.
That unique part of his perception had become so ingrained into him that now that it was gone, Sunny felt blinded. It was as though he suddenly lost his eyes and ears. The whole world seemed strange, unclear, and muddled.
The sudden change was so severe that he almost lost balance.
'D—damn…'
Belle and Dorn, who lived their whole lives like that, did not seem to be disturbed. Sure, they had somewhat come to rely on the ability to see in darkness that Kim often shared to them, but not to a degree where it became their second nature.
Sunny, on the other hand…
He was disoriented, and felt utterly exposed.
'How horrible…'
Grimacing, he gripped the shaft of the Cruel Sight tighter and continued walking. The blade of the somber spear did not shine yet, instead absorbing some of the light produced by the lanterns of the Irregulars, in case he needed it in the future.
The tunnel was wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other without brushing sides, and utterly empty. Nothing but impenetrable darkness filled its silent expanse, and so, their steps echoed, reflecting from the cold stone walls.
Sunny glanced at Belle and Dorn with a bit of displeasure. He was walking as noiselessly as usual, trained to remain unnoticed by the long months of hunting down powerful abominations in the Dark City. However, the two fighters of the melee vanguard were not versed in stealth, and their equipment was not suited for it, either.
'Way to announce our position to everyone… and every thing. I have a bad feeling about this...'
Although many Nightmare Creatures possessed some way to perceive the world in the absence of light, he was still used to being the one to stalk his prey unseen. Now, however, the roles were reversed… Sunny was at the mercy of whatever creature it was that hid in the darkness.
And there had to be something there, without a doubt.
True darkness, after all, had not come from nothing.
'What kind of ghastly horror will I have to fight this time?'
They carefully moved forward, sticking close to the wall of the tunnel. A few minutes passed, then a dozen. What Sunny feared the most did not happen — nothing attacked them, and there were no collapsed sections of the tunnel's roof that could block the convoy's way out.
However, there was also no sign of exit.
The tunnel simply stretched forward, seemingly endlessly, and completely empty. After a while, Sunny managed to shrug off his discomfort and adjust to having his perception severely crippled, as well as he could.
It was still deeply disturbing, though.
Half an hour passed without them encountering any threats.
"How far do you think we have walked?"
Belle and Dorn thought for a moment. The giant man shrugged.
"Three kilometers? Maybe less."
A deep frown appeared on Sunny's face.
Three kilometers was not a small amount. Of course, there were far longer tunnels out there… the floor also seemed flat and did not slope neither up nor down.
Still, it was strange that they had not been attacked yet.
"...Keep your eyes open."
The small scouting squad continued forward. After a while, they encountered a small opening in the wall of the tunnel, leading into the depths of the mountain. The narrow branch, too, was drowned in true darkness.
Standing near it, Sunny thought that he heard a distant hum. However, a moment later, it was gone, chased away by Dorn's voice.
"This must be one of the additional tunnel shafts that Professor Obel spoke about. There's probably a whole network of them inside the mountain, excavated to house the population in case of a nuclear strike."
Belle scratched the back of his head.
"Who uses nuclear bombs to kill people? Aren't bioweapons far more effective?"
Sunny looked at him darkly.
"Tell that to Europe."
At that moment, Dorn cleared his throat.
"Actually, Captain, they used both nuclear and bioweapons in Europe."
'Oh.'
Well, it was not like Sunny had received a good education. He had barely known that places other than NQSC existed before the fateful conversation with Master Jet.
In any case, he had to decide whether they should explore the side branch of the tunnel or continue forward along the main one. In the end, he chose to stick to their current path.
He did not really care what was out there, in the old network of abandoned passages. As long as the convoy could drive past and reach the exit, Sunny did not have to know.
They walked, and walked, and walked.
...And nothing happened.
At some point, the lack of terrible Nightmare Creatures lunging at them from the darkness started to disturb Sunny more than the possibility of a sudden attack.
'This is too eerie…'
Eventually, the one hour mark passed without them finding anything — not the source of the true darkness, not the Nightmare Creatures that might have made a nest in the tunnel, and not the exit.
There was not even a hint of it.
"Stop."
Sunny frowned as he looked forward.
There was nothing but darkness ahead.
In the end, he sighed and turned around. The scouting mission was both a resounding success and a resounding failure. They did not find any active threats to the convoy, but they also failed to conclusively prove that there were none.
In any case, the time he had allotted for the scouting mission was up.
"Let's head back."
Now, his best choice was to lead the convoy forward and hope for the best.
Despite the lack of Nightmare Creatures — or of anything, really — inside the tunnel, Sunny felt very uneasy.